


A Cup of Cheer

by ThatRavenclawBitch



Series: 25 Days of Ficlets [6]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Stargate Universe
Genre: 25 Days of Ficlets, F/M, Holidays, Rushbelle, holiday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-13 21:21:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16900035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatRavenclawBitch/pseuds/ThatRavenclawBitch
Summary: From my 25 Days of Ficlets prompts on tumblr. Rushbelle - “You can’t be alone on Christmas Eve”





	A Cup of Cheer

It was 6:00 in the evening on December the 24th and not a single creature was stirring within the halls of the Storybrooke University Physical Sciences building. Save for the occupant of the office at the end of the hall on the third floor.

Many of the office doors on the hall were covered in tinsel and lights, some wrapped in holiday paper of red and green, some decked out in artfully tied ribbon. The office at the end of the hall, however, had no need for such frivolity. It stood stoically solid, made of dark brown wood and sporting no more ornamentation than the brass plated name plaque that proclaimed it the domain of Dr. Nicholas Rush.

Rush wasn’t a Scrooge. He didn’t hate Christmas. He just didn’t have much use for it these days.

He’d been on his own for six years now, ever since Gloria had passed. He hadn’t been much for Christmas, or any holiday, in that time. The semester had ended a week and a half ago, the University cleared out for Christmas break. There was no grading to do, no lectures to prepare, not until after the New Year. But that didn’t stop Rush. He could always find work to do.

He was scribbling away on his white board, working on his private research without regard for the time or the day when there was a knock on his closed office door.

He turned, staring at the door wondering if he’d hallucinated it, lack of sleep or too much caffeine catching up to him. There surely wasn’t anyone else in the building.

But then there came another knock, just a gentle rap of knuckles against the hard wood, easy enough to ignore if he really wanted to.

“Come in,” he said, his dry erase marker still held up in his hand, an inch away from the white board.

The door swung open, the hesitant face of Belle French peeking in and you could have knocked Rush over with a feather.

“Miss French,” he said, more than a little surprised. He hadn’t expected anyone else to be as pathetic as him. “What are you doing here?”

Belle had been his student a few years ago, as brilliant as she was beautiful, a certainly dangerous combination for a lonely old man such as himself. He’d kept his distance as she moved through the program. The last thing she needed was a pathetic creep staring at her for a little too long. Now she was a graduate student in her final year of study. She’d be moving on soon, going off to teach somewhere far away from him.

Belle shrugged, stepping further into the office. “I saw your light on and thought I’d stop in and wish you a Merry Christmas,” she said, clasping her hands in front of her.

“Oh,” he said with a nod. “Merry Christmas.”

Belle smiled at him, a polite quirk of her lips that nevertheless displayed her dimples.

“Are you headed home soon?” she asked, gesturing toward the door. “It’s pretty late.”

Rush just shrugged. “I’ve nowhere pressing to be,” he admitted. He supposed it must sound a little sad to someone young and vivacious like Belle. A middle-aged man sitting alone in an undecorated office on Christmas Eve. Hell he didn’t even have a bottle of whisky in his desk to imbibe a little having finished it off in despair while grading end of term exams last week. But Rush was used to solitude. It didn’t bother him so much anymore, and he’d rather just forget the holiday altogether and get back to work.

“How about yourself?” he asked Belle in return, more out of habit than any real pressing need to know the details of her undoubtedly wonderful Christmas plans.

“Well,” Belle began, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her coat. “I was actually thinking about going to get a drink. The Rabbit Hole is open until 10.”

“Ah,” Rush said, unsure what other response was required. She was probably meeting friends for a Christmas drink, laughter and stories told over a hot toddy before heading home through the snow to fall asleep with full hearts and a pleasant buzz in their systems. He couldn’t really relate. “Well have fun.”

Belle cocked her head to the side, looking like she had something else to say and he waited, watching her over the rim of his glasses.

“I was actually wondering if you’d like to come with me,” she continued.

And there it was. She did pity him after all.

“No thank you,” he said perfunctorily, turning back to his whiteboard. “I’d undoubtedly be an awkward addition. I doubt your friends want an old man tagging along.”

“Oh I’m not meeting anyone there,” Belle said and he turned to look at her once more. “And you’re far from old.”

“Pardon me?”

Belle gave a helpless little shrug of her shoulder.

“I couldn’t afford a plane ticket home this year and everyone else is with their families. I’m on my own.”

She was alone. Like him.

“The Rabbit Hole isn’t exactly my scene but I figure a crowd is a crowd, right? You can’t be alone on Christmas Eve.”

It struck him then. Belle wasn’t asking him to get a drink because she pitied him. She was doing it because she didn’t want to be alone for the holiday. An odd feeling bloomed in his chest, something warm and foreign after all these years. He wanted nothing more than to make Belle French smile.

He returned the cap to his marker, setting it down on the edge of the white board.

“Alright,” he agreed. “The Rabbit Hole it is.”

Belle gave him a brilliant smile, one of the wide, warm ones that made her blue eyes sparkle and melted the ice around his heart. It was that smile that had kept him away from her all these years. He knew that smile would cause a world of trouble for him if he wasn’t careful.

He grabbed his coat from the back of his office chair, slipping it on as Belle waited patiently for him at the door. The warning bells that always accompanied Belle’s presence blared loudly in his head but for once, he ignored them. He slammed the office door shut on those alarm bells, leaving them behind, and headed out for a Christmas drink.


End file.
